Arthur Laffer
Economist popularly tied to the “Laffer curve” depiction of tax-rate revenue trade-offs—an emblem of supply-side arguments that lower marginal rates could unleash growth and receipts.
Laffer’s napkin sketch became shorthand for claiming tax cuts might pay for themselves at sufficiently high initial rates—a possibility economists treat as contingent on elasticities, base broadening, and time horizon, not a universal law.
As an adviser in the Reagan era he personifies the marriage of formal economics and political messaging about incentives, deficits, and growth.
How to read the curve
The Laffer curve is a comparative-statics illustration, not proof that a given cut pays for itself. It belongs in the same discussion as supply-side economics, marginal tax design, and the post-1980 U.S. fiscal record treated in market-thinking and policy topics here.